You gotsta pay for top echelon sound. I would listen to a number of different preamps and a bunch of external phone stages along with....
I owned a Zesto Leto preamp. It was great , their latest Ultra II is even better. But what they really specialize in are phono stages.
Audio Research, also makes great gear ... Pass, many others.
I would want separate components in every situation, in every price range...a great phono stage is almost NEVER included in state of the art preamps... maybe a very good one, but not a reference one